Obama, who once called West a "jackass" after the rapper infamously upstaged Taylor Swift, said he and West had met only two times.

"The first time when I was a senator, and he was with his mom, and he had just gotten big. He is from Chicago and so they wanted to meet. And he was very soft-spoken, very gracious," Obama said, implicitly offering a contrast with West's current persona. "About six months ago, he came to an event."

Obama said he also met West at an unspecified "event" that was "about six months ago," but he didn't elaborate.